Installers was Re: [GD-Linux] ANN: Candy Cruncher for Linux shipped

[Brian H. <bri...@py...>]

At 09:44 AM 3/11/2002 -0800, J C Lawrence wrote:
>script that does the actual install.  Simple, small, fast, and most
>decidedly not GUI (which I prefer but you may not).

One thing to consider is that the notion of "Linux users are hardcore" is 
slowly becoming outmoded.  With distros like RH and Mandrake that are 
targeting ease of use and installation, Linux is become more appealing to 
people that actually need it for other reasons than "to tinker with".  For 
example, I know several Windows oriented types that are using Linux because 
certain tools they need are only available on that system.

I fall pretty staunchly under that classification.  I'm using Mandrake 8.1, 
and while I wish I understood the fundamentals of the distro mechanism 
better, I'm definitely appreciative of the fact that I didn't need to 
configure the X server myself.  RPM package management through a 
centralized software installer has pretty much hidden all the nastiness tar 
-xvf and chmod from me.  Selecting "Workstation", "Developer", and "Office" 
when I installed just to make sure that gcc, make, cvs, etc. were installed 
instead of doing all that manually was also a lifesaver.

So I'm a Linux user, but I only know enough to do the simplest 
stuff.  Sure, I learn a bit more every day as I try to win a battle of 
wills with it ("GODDAMIT, YOU WILL SWAP CAPS-LOCK AND CONTROL OR YOU WILL 
DIE!"), but by and large if I don't NEED to know something about it, then I 
don't WANT to know something about it.

In a way, I'm just trying to make my Linux box feel as much like Unix as OS 
X (sadly enough, on OS X you still need to know quite a bit about Unix if 
you need to do stuff though).

So when Linux apps are brain dead simple to install, that helps out Linux 
(because it reduces alienation from new users).

Brian